A race against time began after the announcement, with 3000 construction workers on three shifts, 24 hours running. Under the sunlight during the day and with the light of photo-beams at night time. Against all odds, after six months of planning, the church of the Cathedral, named Christ’s Nativity church, “the first in Egypt bearing this name”, opened its doors to welcome Coptic Patriarch Tawadros II and the top authorities in the Country, notably President al Sisi, as planned, on the eve of January 7 2018, when Coptic Christians celebrate Christmas. “We love you, and we wish you good holidays”, were the first words of Al Sisi addressed to the faithful gathered in the cathedral for the Holy Mass broadcast also by State Television.

Days - Delegation - Aid - Church - Need

In the past days a delegation of Aid to the Church in Need – Italy (ACS), led by its director, Alessandro Monteduro, visited the construction site with a group of journalists and the bishop of the diocese of Carpi Msgr. Francesco Cavina. The delegation was received by the group of engineers – Christians and Muslims – working on the project, whose execution has been entrusted to Orascom, the major construction company in the Middle East, the only “capable of carrying out such a majestic project”

“We work very hard to complete the project. We are also using precast concrete to speed up the construction and meet the deadline” said Antonios Mounir, young Christian engineer in charge of planning.

Commitment - Synergy - Pope - Tawadros - Fact

“A challenging commitment carried in close synergy with Pope Tawadros. In fact the project must comply with all liturgical-architectural regulations envisaged for buildings in this category.”

Mounir works together with Muslim engineers. They carry out their job with a combination of skilfulness and creativity,...